Process for producing woollike effects upon cotton fabrics



Patented Dec. 9, 192 4.

;,,UNITED S ATES PIA-TENT orrlcs;

H ABOLD I. HUEY, OF SAYLESVILLE, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR TO SAYLES'FINISHING PLANTS, INC., 015 SAYLESVILLE. RHODE ISLAND, A CORPORATION OF RHODE ISLAND.

PROCESS FOR PRODUCING WOOLLIKE EFFECTS UPON COTTON FABRICS.

Io Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HAROLD I. HUEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Saylesville, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented an Improvement in Processes for Producing Woollike Effects Upon Cotton Fabrics, of which the following description is a specification.

This invention relates to processes for producing wool-like or challie eflects in cotton fabrics.

The fact that a cotton fabric treated with concentrated sulphuric acid undergoes a chemical and structural change and assumes I a parchment-like appearance was made known by Mercer in 1844, who obtained the effects by treatment of the fabric with sulphuric'acid of a concentration of from 495 to 53.5 B. The action of sulphuric acid is also known to be more intense when the cotton fabric has been previously mercerized and the concentration is over 50 B.

Wool-like effects have heretofore been produced in cotton fabrics by subjecting the fabric for some minutes to the action of sulphuric acid of a concentration of from 49 to 51f? B. and also like effects have been produced by repeated treatment of the cotton fabric with sulphuric acid of from 49 to 50 B. and an alkali lye. Regulation of temperature to something like 0 C. has still further been known to give the desired finish.

To secure the desired results or wool-like effects in cotton fabric in any case has here- I tofore required nicety of control of the sulphuric acid concentration, since variation in this respect causes marked variations in the character and appearance of the product. One of the purposes of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a process for the production of wool-like; or challie effects in cotton fabrics in which a wide range of variation in the concentration of the acid employed may be possible without material variation in the resulting product.

Where the concentration of the sulphuric acid must be maintained substantially con stant and at a substantially fixed point or between very narrow limits, the watchful care of skilled operatives is required to secure the desired result and avoid damage or variatlon 1n the fabric under treatment.

Application filed May 31,

1922. Serial No. 564,979.

One-of the important features of the present invention, therefore, consists in a process for producing wool-like or challie eflects in cotton-fabrics which will not result in damage or material variations in the final product even. though vvariations-of wide ran e occur in the concentration of the acid emp oyed.

It has heretofore been known, also, that wool-like effects may be produced in cotton fabrics by treatment with hydrochloric acid or phosphoric acid or even with nitric acid, but insuch cases similar restricted limitations in the range of concentration exist as in the case with sulphuric acid. I

' have found that sulphuric acid and an inorganic acid, or sulphuric acid and acetic acid, united in determined quantitative proportions produces a mixture having an effect on cotton fabrics different from any of the acids when used alone, that a cotton fabric when treated by such mixture assumed a fine, uniform wool-like or challie character, and that a wide range in variation of the concentration of the acid mixture may occur without materialvariation in the uniform texture of the resulting product. This permissible wide range of concentration of the mixture is of. great importance in furnishing a wider range of control, the elimination to a degree at least of the watchful attenmercerized, then boiled, bleached and dried.

In any event, however, it is desirable to remove from the cotton fabric the natural .gums and waxes inherent in the fibre and Tweaving. p

The process may be practiced in either.

mercerized or u ercerize'dcotton fabric, but preferably the cotton fabric will be'mercerized, because such preliminary mercerization causes thecotton yarn to become more even and of uniform texture, while the fabric as a whole is rendered inqre susceptible to the acid treatment to follow.

In forming the sulphuric and inorganic acid'mixture, 'the inorganic acid may con-c sist of hydrochloric aci or phosphoric acid,

each of which has a well-known alterative effect on cotton fibre and ofa character different from that of sulphuricacid, and

whichever be used, preferably hydrochloric acid, the commercial quality of such acid .will be mixed withsulphuric acid in deter mined-proportions. Likewise when-a mix- I of sulphuric and commercial hydrochloric acid, while a mixture of 34 .B. will -be' formed of one part of sulphuric acidat 56 B. to two parts of commercial hydrochloric acid. Q

The acid mixture varying'from 34 to 42 B. produces a uniform, sheer, wool-like finish on the cotton fabric treated by it, notwithstanding the wide range in the acid concentration. The time 'of-the treatment is varied to allow the fabric to undergo thenecessary shrinking operation while under the acid treatment.

tion of an acid mixture having the property of producing a wool-like effect on the fabric through a range of concentration from 34 to 42 B., and consisting of'sulphuricacid and a different acid which like the sulphuric acid when used alone has the property of imparting wool-like effects to cotton fabric but at a range of concentration more restricted than the range of said acid mixture.

2.- The described process for producing wool-like effects on cotton fabrics, consist ing in subjecting the cotton fabrics to the action of an acid mixture of sulphuric acid and hydrochloric acid at a concentration of from 34 to 42 B., and then washing the fabrics. p

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

' HAROLD I. HUEY. 

